ProphesyingThe End of Days can make you money but has a limited shelf life, Roger Ebert
by koolaid-man 16 Replies latest jw friends
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asilentone
I did not know that he was a JW. Thanks for the link.
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Soldier77
The author of the column was the JW, not Ebert.
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asilentone
ok, let me re-read.
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asilentone
It is written by Stephen Pate.
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Soldier77
Good article!
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garyneal
I see some apologist are on there making their comments.
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ziddina
“People have short memories,” @sdpate replied. “you can repeat the act after a reasonable amount of time. JWs have been doing it since the 1860s.”
They have named the date for the End of Days at least 16 times since then.
I’ve watched the religion for 6 decades and marvel at their 7 million adherents who regularly ignore the stupidity of believing one wrong End of Days prediction after another.
For a time, I was one of them. My mother converted to be a Jehovah’s Witness when I was 5, much to the anger of my father who was the typical lapsed Catholic. He wasn’t so much as lapsed as a man working two jobs to support a family and weekend tavern habit with a journalist’s cynicism about religion.
So for the next 25 years I heard nothing but Armageddon warnings, about the war between Jesus and Satan and how only Jehovah’s Witnesses would make it through to paradise on earth. Fire would dance on the surface of the world in the End of Days consuming the wicked – which meant everyone not out selling Watchtowers on the weekends. As a child, it was an intriguing concept and held in place by daily bible readings, five hours of meetings at the Kingdom Hall, bible study at the dining room table and sundry other bits of brainwashing. I went along for the ride. ..."
Well, well, well....
Who'da thunk???
I love that HE also calls it "BRAINWASHING"!!
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ziddina
Copying and pasting this for future reference...
(The "quote" function didn't function on this one, no matter what I did, so...)
"Dates Jehovah’s Witnesses prophesied as the End of the World
- 1877: Christ’s kingdom would hold full sway over the earth in 1914; the Jews, as a people, would be restored to God’s favour; the “saints” would be carried to heaven. [52]
- 1891: 1914 would be “the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.” [53]
- 1904: “World-wide anarchy” would follow the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. [54]
- 1916: World War I would terminate in Armageddon and the rapture of the “saints”. [55]
- 1917: In 1918, Christendom would go down as a system to oblivion and be succeeded by revolutionary governments. God would “destroy the churches wholesale and the church members by the millions.” Church members would “perish by the sword of war, revolution and anarchy”. The dead would lie unburied. In 1920 all earthly governments would disappear, with worldwide anarchy prevailing. [56]
- 1920: Messiah’s kingdom would be established in 1925 and bring worldwide peace. God would begin restoring the earth. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful patriarchs would be resurrected to perfect human life and be made princes and rulers, the visible representatives of the New Order on earth. Those who showed themselves obedient to God would never die. [57]
- 1922: The antitypical “jubilee” that would mark God’s intervention in earthly affairs in 1925 would take place in “probably the fall” of that year. [58] The chronology was described as “correct beyond a doubt”, [44] “absolutely and unqualifiedly correct”, [45] bearing “the stamp of approval of Almighty God” [45] and “too sublime to be the result of chance or of human invention”. [45]
- 1924: God’s restoration of the Earth would begin “shortly after” October 1, 1925. Jerusalem would be made the world’s capital. Resurrected “princes” such as Abel, Noah, Moses and John the Baptist would give instructions to their subjects around the world by radio, and aeroplanes would transport people to and from Jerusalem from all parts of the globe in just “a few hours”. [59]
- 1938: In 1938, Armaggedon was too close for marriage or child bearing. [60]
- 1941: There were only “months” remaining until Armageddon. [61]
- 1942: Armageddon was “immediately before us.” [62]
- 1966: It would be 6000 years since man’s creation in the fall of 1975 and it would be “appropriate” for Christ’s thousand-year reign to begin at that time. [63] Time was “running out, no question about that.” [64] The “immediate future” was “certain to be filled with climactic events … within a few years at most”, the final parts of Bible prophecy relating to the “last days” would undergo fulfillment as Christ’s reign began.
- 1968: No one could say “with certainty” that the battle of Armageddon would begin in 1975, but time was “running out rapidly” with “earthshaking events” soon to take place. [65] In March 1968 there was a “short period of time left”, with “only about ninety months left before 6000 years of man’s existence on earth is completed”. [66]
- 1969: Human existence would not last long enough for young people to grow old; the world system would end “in a few years”. Young Witnesses were told not to bother pursuing tertiary education for this reason. [67]
- 1974: There was just a “short time remaining before the wicked world’s end” and Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to “finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service”. [68]
- 1984: There were “many indications” that “the end” was closer than the end of the 20th century. [69]
The 1974 citation refers to the announcement of October 1, 1975 which had been predicted back in the 1960s.
Hope somebody ELSE looks up all these dates!! ('cause I'm LAZY... ... Actually, I probably don't have all the works referenced...)
I think that, since I wasn't able to clean up the text, the 'links' might still work...
Zid
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ziddina
Whoops... Guess that list's on Wikipedia, too...